Reviews, Rants and Rambles from a mom and pre-published author

What Would You Do With 15 MINUTES?–A Review

Hi there! Today’s book is a YA sci-fi thriller I won on a Facebook party a few weeks back. I answered the question: If you could go back into your life and ‘re-do’ 15 minutes what would you change?

Well, I’m naturally leery of changing too many things by monkeying with the past–The old conundrum holds, what if I undid one of my kids births…and all.

But I had a think, and I came up with this: When I was 17 I had a car wreck on a snowy evening. Myself and my two passengers were injured–two of us requiring plastic surgery to repair lacerations to our faces due to the shattered glass. We were all teammates on the girls swimming team and two days from the qualifiers to the state competition–on a team that was REALLY competitive. Two of us, including myself, were barred from the pool due to our wounds. Months and months of training were wasted–I never swam competitively again. I would have liked those 15 minutes back–to choose a different route.

15 MINUTES, by Jill Cooper, is a suspense-filled, mindbender where the protagonist breaks the cardinal rule of time-travel, and destroys the world she knew and loved. Then she has to save her family–and herself.

About the book:I have 15 minutes to save my mother’s life….

15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives you in the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough time to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago. But that’s not how it happened.

The story she’s been told all her life is a lie and when Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever. The love of her life acts like a stranger. Her simple life is replaced with a giant house, glamorous clothes and a new boyfriend.

Except someone knows her secret. And he will try to stop her at every turn as she races against the clock to unravel a dangerous conspiracy.

15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller that can be described as Back to the Future meets Inception where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn’t understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family

My Review:
Lara has longed to know her mother for her whole life. She had been killed when Lara was a young girl. Her father did his best, but he was broken by the loss. They get by, and Lara’s happy.

For her 16th birthday, Lara’s dad buys her a ten-trip package into her own past. That’s right! REWIND can send people back in time for 15 minute jaunts. Lara jumps at the chance, visiting her past several times. She knows she’s not supposed to change anything–in fact trippers CAN’T change anything–until Lara does. She thinks it’s an accident, but soon recognizes her ability to alter the past is not a fluke. And now, she’s going to save her mom.

Success is measured in doses. If one looked at the change in Lara’s life after she saves her mom, to how it was before she interfered, one would say it was a toxic dose. Her beloved father is in prison accused of planning her mother’s hit, and her mom is remarried to another man, Jax. Oh, and “new” Lara has siblings!

She also has a new boyfriend–she traded up from “bad side of the tracks” Rick to uber-rich Donovan. Life is totally messed up–plus, Lara’s mom spends so much time working for REWIND she’s never home. Jax is Lara’s pro-forma parent, but was he involved in a setup to frame Lara’s dad?

The more Lara uncovers about her new life the fewer people she can trust–starting with her mom. Seems she’s a (diabolical) scientist being (perhaps) manipulated by an old colleague. It’s a twisty mess, that even Lara can’t unravel by going back. Plus, the memories of her old life are crashing the memories of her new one, causing nosebleeds and crushing headaches as she suffers life-threatening traveling sickness.

It’s a worst-case Butterfly Effect scenario that Lara struggles to escape, without losing her grip on reality altogether. I enjoyed the ride, watching Lara dip back and forth in her timeline to right wrongs and fix problems. Such a mess sorting through her broken house of cards! Lara is always playing from behind as she gets dropped into her new reality as if she lived it–and learns that she suspected an evil plot even when her life seemed idyllic. The breadcrumbs were scattered far and wide, yet, Lara picks them up and reassembles the original loaf, not without difficulty.

Once you give people access to your mind, you find that they can control you quite easily, as Lara soon learns. The end leaves everything managed, albeit not “back to normal”–mostly because Lara isn’t normal, and her new, new life is the best she can manage. Wonder if she ever thought about going back to her old life and tearing up that REWIND gift….

About the Author:
Author of the YA Dream Slayer series, Jill loves to blend horror, comedy, the supernatural, and love, through her novels. A fan of genre blending, her work strives to cross boundries, but most of all strives to entertain.

She loves soft cuddly cats, warm blankets, and paranormal romances. Jill resides in Massachusetts, is constantly renovating her home that she shares with her husband, young daughter, and two skittish cats. You can find Jill on her website, Facebook and twitter.